Washington Vet School Adds Utah, Montana, Idaho
Regional cooperative veterinary training program draws students from
four states and offers resident tuition for all.
According to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), the United States boasts only 30 accredited colleges of veterinary medicine. The entire western region, 13 states, is home to only six. Thus, western states have had to find solutions to ensure their residents have access to affordable veterinary training.
The latest measure taken by some western states has been the Washington-Idaho-Montana-Utah (WIMU) regional program in veterinary medicine.
University of Idaho
For the past 40 years, the state of Idaho has contracted with Washington State University (WSU) College of Veterinary Medicine in Pullman, Wash., to enroll 11 Idaho residents per year in its veterinary medicine program. Through the contractual agreement and with funding support from the Idaho legislature, Idaho students pay resident tuition to WSU all four years.
Utah State University
In 2008, WSU began discussions with Utah State University (USU) in Logan, Utah, for a joint program.
Those discussions led to an agreement and legislative funding to create a 2+2 program between the two schools that began in the fall of 2012.
“Students do their first two years at Utah State before moving up here to Pullman,” describes Bryan Slinker, dean of the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine. “In that cohort, there are a total of 30 students — 20 of them are Utah residents, and 10 of them are nonresidents.”
Dirk Vanderwall, associate dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at USU, says WIMU has increased the number of students Utah can send to vet school. Along with opening more spots, Utah was able to initiate a concerted effort to attract students who would pursue a livestock-oriented practice, particularly in the more rural, underserved areas of the state.
Because of that, USU is proud to offer its vet students expertise in large-animal medicine before they head to Washington.
Montana State University
When the USU-WSU program proved successful, Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, Mont., got involved. Subsequently, in 2014, WIMU was born.
In Mark Quinn’s opinion, WSU ranks in the top five vet schools in the country. The professor and director of WIMU at MSU says he is more than happy to send his students to a renowned university that provides a broad education with a strong emphasis in livestock.
There are 10 Montana resident students in the MSU program, explains Slinker. The 1+3 program allows those 10 students to spend their first year at MSU and then move to Pullman for years two, three and four at WSU.
Like Utah, Montana is interested in training its residents in a good career but also in having them eventually return and practice inside the state.
For more information read this article in its entirety in the May 2016 issue of the Angus Journal.
Editor’s Note: Paige Nelson is a freelance writer and a cattlewoman from Rigby, Idaho.